1. An Orthodox Christian Approach

There are at least five reasons why Orthodox Christians should read and study the Holy Bible. First, according to Christian tradition, the Bible is the divinely inspired and thus authentic record of God's revelation of himself and of his will to mankind. Correctly understood, it is a primary source of truth concerning the nature of God, the condition of man and the overall purpose of the universe. Those who seek such truth must therefore have recourse to the witness of Holy Scripture.

Second, as an inspired record of divine revelation, the Bible is God's Word to mankind concerning himself and his kingdom. And that Word is addressed especially to those who are members of the Church, who are called to listen to it, heed it, take it to heart and respond to it in faith and obedience.

Third, the Orthodox Church teaches that the Bible is a verbal icon of God himself. Just as the persons and events depicted in painted icons are "really present" in and through their physical representations, so God is "really present" in and through the physical representation of his written Word. Through reading and studying Holy Scripture, through praying over it and meditating upon it, it is possible to make contact with, and commune with, God himself. Through the diligent and prayerful study of and meditation upon the Bible one can both "touch" and "be touched by" the eternal, undivided and life-creating Trinity.

Fourth, the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church is grounded in and expressive of Holy Scripture. It has been estimated that in the Divine Liturgy alone, and without counting readings from the epistles and gospels or the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, there are "98 quotations from the Old Testament and 114 from the New."1 And in all Orthodox services throughout the year, the Bible is read almost constantly. It follows that one's understanding of and participation in the liturgies and services of the Church will be both deepened and intensified to the extent that one makes himself familiar with the contents of God's written Word.

Fifth, and finally, the Bible is a major expression of the holy tradition of the Orthodox Church. According to Fr. Kallistos Ware, "the Orthodox Christian of today sees himself as heir and guardian to a great inheritance received from the past, and he believes that it is his duty to transmit that inheritance unimpaired to the future."2 But in order to perform this duty, Orthodox Christians will have to overcome a number of rather formidable obstacles. Faced with the secularized culture of the contemporary world, Orthodox Christianity must learn to dwell in the presence of, and frequently in competition with, a multitude of non-Orthodox philosophical and religious movements and organizations. Many Orthodox Christians are, in fact, tempted to depart from the Orthodox Church in response to the often quite attractive and effective enticements of these philosophies and religions. For far too many of today's Orthodox Christians, holy tradition has ceased to be a living and life-sustaining tradition. Cut off from his theological roots by political forces, by radical cultural change and by his own failure to live in the light and truth of God, the modern Orthodox Christian must make every effort to comprehend the doctrinal and liturgical foundations of his tradition and to express that comprehension in a living faith. Only then will he be able to perform his duty of preserving and passing on "the whole system of doctrine, Church government, worship, and art which Orthodoxy has articulated over the ages."3 In seeking to carry out this task, it will be necessary to construct a specifically Orthodox critique of the predominantly secular, non-Orthodox and even anti-Christian beliefs and values of the present age. And an important part of this overall project will be the serious study of the content and meaning of Holy Scripture and the development of a world perspective that is grounded in and expressive of what Fr. Georges Florovsky has called "the scriptural mind."4

For these (and other) reasons, then, Orthodox Christians should make the reading and study of Holy Scripture a central concern of their lives. The Bible is, of course, a very large and complex collection of documents; and it is possible for the beginning Bible reader to get lost in the details of the sacred texts. What is important, as one seeks to develop a "scriptural mind," is to strive for a sense of the overall message of God's written Word, "a grasp of the Scriptures in their totality."5 It is, in fact, the major purpose of this book to present a coherent survey of the central themes of the Holy Bible, and to outline, from the standpoint of Orthodox biblical theology, the general message of God's scriptural revelation.

The Bible contains two major parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. From the standpoint of historic Christianity, the Bible is the book of salvation, a primary revelation of the manner in which God has acted and is acting to deliver humankind from the forces of evil. Man was intended to live in eternal fellowship with God, but has instead rebelled against his Creator. Having alienated himself from God, man has cut himself off from that spiritual wisdom, that moral and spiritual perfection and that eternal life which God originally intended him to enjoy. As a result of this self-induced alienation from God, man is lost and in bondage to the world, the flesh and the devil. But God has acted, in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ, to save man from his alienated condition. And God has revealed himself, his will and his plan for the salvation of the human race to the patriarchs and prophets of ancient Israel and to the apostles of Jesus — not in writing, but by way of direct revelation. The Bible is the written record of that original and unwritten revelation. The Old Testament tells the story of God's dealings with ancient Israel from approximately 2000 B.C. until the time of Jesus; and it contains, as its central message, God's promise to save mankind and the world through the "anointed one" (Messiah, Christ) of Israel. And the New Testament proclaims Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Christ, who has, through his life and deeds, fulfilled the divine plan of salvation and made it possible for man to be reconciled to God.

The text of the Old Testament, which was originally composed in Hebrew (and partly in Aramaic), has been historically transmitted in both a Hebrew and a Greek version. (Ancient Latin versions have also survived, but these are translations from either the Greek or the Hebrew texts). These two versions (the Hebrew and the Greek) reflect a dispute among the Jews of the late pre-Christian and early Christian periods concerning the precise content and meaning of their Sacred Scriptures. One major element in that dispute had to do with the total number of books that should be regarded as divinely inspired and thus authoritative. Some Jews held to a "longer" canon of forty-nine books (the Greek word kanon means "standard" and has come to be used in the sense of "authoritative text"), while others adhered to a "shorter" canon containing thirty-nine books. Those who favored the shorter canon also thought that some portions of a few of the thirty-nine books should be deleted from Sacred Scripture (for example, certain parts of the books of Esther and Daniel). By the end of the first century A.D., the advocates of the shorter canon had won out, and the Hebrew version of the Old Testament, which has been passed down to the present day, thus contains only thirty-nine books. Among the Jews, this version is known as the Hebrew Bible.

The longer canon of the Old Testament has been preserved in the Greek version, which was produced between the third and first centuries B.C., and which has survived mainly because of its importance in the formation and transmission of the Christian biblical heritage. According to an ancient tradition, the Greek version had its beginning in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.). King Ptolemy wanted a copy of the Pentateuch ("the five scrolls," the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) for the famous library in Alexandria; and, under his sponsorship, seventy-two Jewish scholars, working for seventy-two days, produced a Greek translation of the Pentateuch from ancient Hebrew manuscripts. On the basis of this traditional story, the number "seventy-two" was rounded to "seventy," and the Greek Old Testament became known as the Septuagint (or LXX — septuaginta means "seventy" in Latin). By the middle of the first century B.C., forty-four additional books had been appended to the Septuagint. The Greek Old Testament, therefore, contains the shorter canon of the Jewish scriptures as well as other texts not included in the Hebrew Bible.

The Septuagint was the text most often quoted by the writers of the New Testament, and it was the version of the Old Testament most widely used in the early Christian community. For these reasons, the Orthodox Church has always regarded the Septuagint, rather than the Hebrew Bible, as the authoritative version of the Old Testament. In those (many) places where the wording of the Septuagint differs from that of the Hebrew Bible, the Orthodox Church holds that the Greek rendering is to be accepted as divinely inspired.6 The Church is here following the practice of the New Testament writers themselves. For example, the Hebrew text of Isaiah 7:14 reads, "a young woman (almah) shall conceive and bear a son," while the rendering of the Greek text is, "a virgin (parthenos) shall conceive and bear a son." This Old Testament verse refers, of course, to the birth of the Messiah. And faced with the significant contrast between the Hebrew and Greek renderings of this verse, the New Testament follows the phrasing of the Greek text (see Mt 1:23).

The Greek Old Testament, then, is a collection of forty-nine books. This collection is subdivided into four sections. First, there are the "books of the law," or Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These books describe God's creation of the world, the original rebellion and fall of man and the history of God's chosen people, Israel, from the time of Abraham (c. 2000 B.C.) to the time of Moses (c. 1290-1250 B.C.). This material was compiled in written form between the tenth and fifth centuries B.C. Because so much of the Pentateuch is concerned with the revelation of the divine law to God's people, the Jews called this section of Holy Scripture the Torah, which is Hebrew for "law."

The second part is the "books of history": Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 Esdras, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Judith, Tobit and 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees. Two other works associated with the Old Testament historical books are 2 Esdras, which was never a part of the Greek Old Testament, and 4 Maccabees, which is included in some ancient copies of the Septuagint. Neither of these books, however, is regarded as canonical by the Orthodox Church. The Old Testament books of history, which were written between the twelfth century B.C. and the first century A.D., trace the life of ancient Israel from the thirteenth century B.C. to the time of Christ.

Third, we have the "books of wisdom": Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach). The Old Testament wisdom literature contains poetic, philosophical and theological discourses which argue that happiness is possible only through faith in and obedience to God. The books of wisdom were composed between the eleventh and first centuries B.C.

Finally, there are the "books of the prophets": Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, the Letter of Jeremiah, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Mpst of these nineteen books were written between the eighth and the fourth centuries B.C.; but the books of Daniel and Baruch may have been composed as late as the second century B.C. The central theme of Old Testament prophecy is the coming of the Messiah and of the kingdom of God.

The materials in the Septuagint which are not contained in the Hebrew Bible are as follows: 1 Esdras, Judith, Tobit, 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, the Letter of Jeremiah; Baruch, Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh (from 2 Chronicles) and certain portions of Esther and Daniel. The canonicity of these materials was sometimes doubted even in the early Church, and has been disputed by many later Christian scholars. It is noteworthy, for example, that while there are many quotations from the Septuagint in the New Testament, none of these quotations are taken from the disputed portions of the longer canon. But it must also be noted that many of the early Church fathers considered the entire Greek Old Testament to be divinely inspired. In the course of time, therefore, the Orthodox Church has come to accept the disputed texts of the Septuagint as "deuterocanonical," that is, canonical in a secondary sense and standing "on a lower footing than the rest of the Old Testament."7 The Roman Catholic Church is in basic agreement with the Orthodox point of view on this matter, but does not accept 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151 or the Prayer of Manasseh as possessing even "deuterocanonical" authority; these latter texts are therefore excluded from Roman Catholic editions of the Old Testament. The Protestant churches have accepted the Hebrew Bible as the authoritative version of the Old Testament. Among Protestants, the disputed materials of the Greek Old Testament are known as the Apocrypha, the term "apocryphal" being used in the sense of "noncanonical." In some Protestant editions of the Bible, the Apocrypha are placed in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments or at the end of the New Testament; and in many Protestant editions, the "apocryphal" texts are not included at all.

While differing on the exact content of the Old Testament, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians are agreed on the number and sequence of the twenty-seven books that make up the New Testament. All of the books in the New Testament were written in Greek between 50 and 100 A.D., either by apostles of Christ (Matthew, John, Peter and Paul), or by close and faithful associates of the apostles (Mark, Luke, James and Jude), and they contain eyewitness testimonies and theological interpretations concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. As indicated earlier, the overall message of the New Testament is that through faith in Christ man can be reconciled to God and thus saved from the powers of ignorance, sin and death.

By the middle of the second century A.D., a great deal of writing about Jesus had been done. Since some of this literature was fanciful and unreliable, the Church, seeking to preserve the apostolic message of salvation through Christ, found it necessary to distinguish clearly between those writings which did and those writings which did not possess apostolic authority. And, on this basis, the New Testament canon as it is known today came into being. There were debates in the early Church concerning the canonicity of the book of Revelation, the letter to the Hebrews and the epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude. But by the fifth century, all of these books — along with the four gospels, the book of Acts and the letters of St. Paul — had been accepted by the Church as apostolic in origin, divinely inspired and thus canonical.

The New Testament canon of twenty-seven books contains four types of documents. The New Testament begins with the four gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John. The gospels recount the major events in the life of Christ and proclaim the "good news" of salvation through Christ. Scholars have dated the writing of the gospels as follows: St. Mark, c. 65 A.D.; St. Matthew and St. Luke, c. 70 A.D.; and St. John, c. 85-90 A.D. Secondly, the Acts of the Apostles (or the book of Acts), written c. 70 A.D. by St. Luke, is a history of the foundation and growth of the first-century Church. It surveys the development of the Church from the ascension of Christ (c. 30 A.D.), through the missionary travels of St. Paul (c. 47-56 A.D.), to the first imprisonment of St. Paul in Rome (c. 59-61 A.D.). The third group is the letters (or epistles). There are twenty-one letters contained in the New Testament. Fourteen of these have been traditionally attributed to St. Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews. The remaining seven letters — James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John and Jude — are known as the "catholic epistles" because they are addressed not to local churches (for example, the Roman or the Galatian) or to individuals (such as Timothy or Titus) but to the whole (that is, universal or "catholic") Christian community. The letters of St. Paul were written between 50 and 67 A.D., and the catholic epistles were composed between 60 and 100 A.D. The New Testament letters contain expositions of the moral and doctrinal implications of the Christian faith. The authors of these letters (Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude) were seeking to maintain good order and orthodoxy of belief in the many Christian communities which had sprung up in the Mediterranean world by the middle of the first century A.D. Finally, we have the book of Revelation (or the Apocalypse). The term "apocalyptic" is used to characterize prophecies which point toward the end of time; and the New Testament apocalypse is such an "end-time" prophecy. Written in highly symbolic language, the book describes a vision of the second coming of Christ, the last judgment and the final establishment of the kingdom of God. This visionary book was written during the last decade of the first century A.D., and has been traditionally viewed as the work of St. John the apostle.

Although the Bible, as we have seen, contains two "testaments," the historic Christian Church has always stressed the basic unity of the biblical revelation. The Old and New Testaments are unified in that they were both written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they both contain the same central theme and message concerning God's plan for the salvation of the human race and they both point in the same direction — the coming of the kingdom of God. The Bible, then, contains one revelation in two dispensations. And the key to the unity of Holy Scripture is Jesus Christ. He is the central figure in the divine plan of salvation revealed in God's written Word. From the Christian point of view, the Old Testament is a promise of, and a preparation for, the coming of the Messiah, of the Christ through whom the salvation of mankind will be effected; and in its proclamation of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the New Testament affirms the fulfillment of the Old Testament message of salvation: in and through Jesus Christ, God has saved mankind and the world.

The Bible, as we have seen, is a book of books, a collection or library of sacred writings. The books contained in Holy Scripture were written, edited and compiled at various times, in various places and by various authors; but the Orthodox Church regards this collection of writings as an authentic and authoritative (that is, "canonical") revelation of truth concerning the relationships between God, man and the universe. The Bible is the written Word of God, "the supreme expression of God's revelation to man."8

The books of the Bible were written by men — that is, by Old and New Testament saints — who were guided in their writing by divine inspiration. From the standpoint of the Orthodox Church, "the entire Bible is inspired by God," and this means that it "contains no formal errors or inner contradictions concerning the relationship between God and the world."9 The overall message of the Bible, that mankind has fallen under satanic bondage and that God has graciously acted in and through Christ to save us from that bondage, is infallibly true. According to the Orthodox doctrine of infallibility, the Church as a whole is the guardian of "the eternal spiritual and doctrinal message of God"10 and is protected from error by the Holy Spirit. The Bible, therefore, as a testimony and proclamation of the Church concerning God's revealed plan of salvation, is without error in its central theological themes and affirmations.

It is not necessary, however, for the Orthodox Christian to insist upon the literal truth of every statement contained in Holy Scripture. Many Orthodox scholars believe that the Bible may contain "incidental inaccuracies of a non-essential character."11 For example, the author of the book of Daniel describes Belshazzar as the "king" of Babylon and as the son of Nebuchadnezzar (r. 605-562 B.C.); but, in fact, Belshazzar was the son of King Nabonidus (r. 556-539 B.C.), and never became king himself, although he did serve as viceroy during his father's absences (see Dn 5:1-31). For another example, many scholars think that the story of God's creation of the world in the first chapter of Genesis assumes that "the universe [is] enwrapped in waters held back by a solid bell-shaped barrier called the firmament"12 — and such an assumption is certainly at odds with what modern science has to say about the cosmos. But these kinds of historical and scientific inaccuracies do not undermine the coherence and validity of the essential theological message of Holy Scripture. The Orthodox Church, in affirming the divine inspiration and infallibility of the Holy Bible, does not exclude the possibility that the Bible might contain some minor errors of fact, but she insists upon the absolute truth of scripture's overall message of salvation.

The Orthodox Church believes herself to be the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" spoken of in the Nicene Creed, the community of faith founded by Christ through his apostles (see Mt 16:13-20 and 18:15-20; and 1 Pt 2:4-10), the new Israel. Under the administrative and spiritual leadership of her bishops, who stand in the "apostolic succession" — that is, whose office and authority are derived historically from the apostles of Christ — the Church regards her own historic life and experience, her "holy tradition as a faithful preservation, continuation and development of the apostolic tradition, the spiritual legacy imparted by Christ to his apostles and handed on by them to later generations of Christian believers. To be an Orthodox Christian is to accept the holy tradition of the Orthodox Church as the Christian tradition, to see the Orthodox Church as the divinely appointed guardian and teacher of the Christian faith and to live under the spiritual authority and guidance of the bishops of the Church, the living successors and representatives of Christ and his apostles.

The Orthodox faith is a living and experiential faith. It is grounded in the conviction that God has revealed himself and his plan of salvation to his chosen people of the old and new covenants, to ancient Israel and to the Christian community. Orthodox Christians believe that God has made himself present and known, and that he continues to make himself present and known, within the continuing life and experience of his people — that is, within the holy tradition of the Church. Holy tradition, then, is the living and developing expression of the Orthodox faith, of the Church's ongoing experience of and response to the grace and love of God. Holy tradition is not merely a collection of written documents, or a body of doctrinal beliefs, or a set of customary practices. It is, in the words of Fr. Thomas Hopko, "the total life and experience of the entire Church transferred from place to place and from generation to generation ... the very life of the Church as it is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit."13 To live one's life within the holy tradition of the Church is to experience the reality and presence of God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — in the midst of his people.

Holy tradition has been articulated in a number of outward forms. Its primary and normative articulation is to be found in the Bible itself, "the main written source and inspiration of all that developed in later ages."14 Other outward elements of holy tradition are the liturgies and liturgical texts of the Church; the Nicene Creed; the doctrinal definitions of the seven ecumenical councils which were held between the fourth and the eighth centuries; the writings of the fathers of the Church (that is, those great theologians and spiritual teachers who have explained and defended the Christian faith through the ages); certain pronouncements of local councils and of individual bishops which have been accepted by the Church as a whole; the canon laws of the Church; and the icons and other art forms produced by the Church in her ongoing effort to give expression to her faith in God. Through these outward forms of holy tradition, the Orthodox Church has sought to preserve, defend and proclaim the deposit of faith which has been entrusted to her by Christ and his apostles.

The Bible, then, is a part of the holy tradition of the Church, of the Church's living, experiential and faithful response to God. Scripture and tradition are not two different expressions of the Christian faith. Holy tradition is the source of Holy Scripture; holy tradition is the faith of which Holy Scripture is an expression. Scripture exists, lives and reveals its meaning within the tradition of the Church. To separate, isolate and contrast scripture and tradition "is to impoverish the idea of both alike."15 The full meaning of God's written Word can be expounded, therefore, only from within the historic unfolding and expression of the faith of the Church, only from the standpoint of holy tradition in its entirety.

Since scripture is "given" within the context of tradition, it must also be read, interpreted and understood within that context. And since, as we have seen, tradition is "the total life and experience" of the Church, it follows that the Church is the sole authoritative interpreter of the Bible. Christ is the founder and head of the Church, and the Church is the body of Christ (see Eph 4:1-16 and 5:21-33). This means that Christ lives in, inspires and guides his Church through the Holy Spirit. Christ, in and through the Church, "provides the correct interpretation of the Bible" and of other aspects of holy tradition. "It is only within the living Tradition of the Church and the direct inspiration of Christ's Spirit that the proper interpretation of the Bible can be made."16 Thus, the Orthodox Christian must make every effort to read the Bible in the light of the historic and living faith of the Church. Entering into the life of the Church as fully and as faithfully as is possible for him — through regular participation in the liturgical and sacramental services of the Church, through continual and fervent prayer, through diligent study of the various elements of holy tradition and especially the writings of the great fathers of the Church — the Orthodox Christian must seek an understanding of Holy Scripture which is consistent with and expressive of the spiritual and doctrinal content of the Orthodox faith as a whole. The Orthodox Christian's judgment of scriptural truth must never be a merely private judgment (see 2 Pt 1:20) but must be a judgment in harmony with the mind of the Church as expressed in holy tradition.

The first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis contain a story of the origins of the world, of mankind and of the people of Israel. During the fifteen century B.C., as we shall see below, the people of Israel were liberated by God from their slavery in Egypt and were given possession of the promised land of Canaan (or Palestine). The book of Genesis is written from the standpoint of this "Exodus experience" Israel's experience of God's special favor toward his people. Many scholars believe that the present form of Genesis is a compilation and edition of ancient written documents and oral traditions made by Jewish religious authorities in the fifth century B.C. The Orthodox Church does not deny this, but teaches that the entire process by which the book of Genesis (and the other books of Holy Scripture) came into existence — the writing, the editing and the compiling of the documents that make up the biblical text — was guided and inspired by God through the Holy Spirit.

The early chapters of Genesis were not written as a scientific or empirical history, but as a sacred history. Through poetic, symbolic, legendary and even mythological stories, Genesis 1-11 is an attempt to convey certain religious truths concerning the general relationship between God, man and the universe and the special relationship between God and Israel. This section of scripture is not a scientific account of the origins of man and the cosmos, but a theological interpretation, within a chronological and genealogical framework, of the human condition and of Israel's role in God's providential plan for the world.

Genesis 1-11 does, of course, contain a number of important factual claims: that God created the universe, that mankind was created in the image of God, that the human race has alienated itself from God as a result of sin, that the sinful world is subject to God's judgment and that God mercifully acts to redeem his creation from the powers of sin and death. It may also be true that Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Noah and other persons named in Genesis 1-11 were indeed historical figures whose names have been preserved in the folklore of ancient Israel; and many scholars believe that the story of the great flood in Genesis 6-8 is based upon the actual occurrence of a major deluge in the ancient Middle East (c. 4000 B.C.). But it is doubtful that God created the world and mankind in the precise manner depicted in Genesis 1-2, that the fall of the human race took place exactly as described in Genesis 3, that the stories of Noah and the flood (Gn 6-9) and of the Tower of Babel (Gn 11) are literally true in all of their details, and so on. Were we to accept every detail of Genesis 1-11 as literally true, we should be committing ourselves to the view that man made his appearance on earth only about 120 hours after the world was created; that daylight existed before the sun came into being (Gn 1:3-5, 14-19); that the universe is surrounded by water (1:6-8); that the universe is no more than six or seven thousand years old (a figure arrived at by tracing the various genealogies found in the Old Testament); and that the various languages of the human race originated at the Tower of Babel, less than four thousand years ago (11:1-9). Such ancient conceptions of the cosmos and of human history have been rendered implausible by modern scientific and historical discoveries. For example, it is practically certain that the universe is millions or even billions of years old and that it is not surrounded by water; that mankind appeared on earth approximately two million years ago; and that there was a multiplicity of human cultures and languages long before the time of the Tower of Babel (c. 2000 B.C.).

It may well be that the human writer (or writers) of the book of Genesis believed some or even all of the stories contained in the first eleven chapters of that book to be literally true in every detail. Even so, the primary purpose of Genesis 1-11 is not to insist upon the truth of any particular scientific description of the origins and development of the world, but to proclaim that God is the Creator of the world and of mankind, that the human race has sinfully separated itself from the presence of God and that to be saved from the powers of sin and death man must return to God in a spirit of love and obedience. The cosmological and historical framework of the early chapters of Genesis is merely the vehicle by which the Holy Spirit reveals and communicates certain spiritual truths necessary to the salvation of mankind and the world. Genesis 1-11 is a sacred history that gives "coherent expression to truths and events of a religious nature which cannot possibly be enunciated or described in empirical terms";1 it is a revelation of God and his nature, a prophetic explanation of the "brokenness" of human existence and a proclamation of God's plan for the redemption of mankind and the world.

The theological content of Genesis 1-11, then, encompasses two major themes: (l) the original relationship between God, man and the universe, prior to the intrusion of sin into the divinely created cosmic order (chapters 1-2); and (2) the disruption of the divine order by sin, God's judgment and condemnation of that sin and his merciful determination to redeem mankind and the world from the bondage of evil (3-11). Genesis 1-2 describes the relationship between God, man and nature as it was originally intended to be; while Genesis 3-11 presents that relationship as it is — corrupted and subverted by man's sinful rebellion against the love and will of God.

The central theme of the first two chapters of Genesis is God's creation of the world and of mankind. In Genesis 1, the creative work of God is divided into six "days." After his initial creation of "the heavens and the earth" (1:1), God calls into being the light of day (1:3-5); the earth's atmosphere (1:6-8); the major land masses and vegetation (1:9-13); the sun, moon and stars (1:14-19); the sea creatures and the birds (1:20-23); and, finally, the land animals and mankind (1:24-30). Genesis 2 describes the great Sabbath rest of God following the "six days" of creation (2:1-3), as well as God's preparation of "the garden of Eden" as a dwelling place for mankind (2:4-25).

Most modern biblical scholars believe that Genesis 1-2 contains two different creation stories, derived from two different traditions in ancient Israel. The "six day" creation story of Genesis 1, which concludes with God's "seventh day" rest in Genesis 2:1-3, is followed in Genesis 2:4-25 by what appears to be a second account focusing upon God's creation of the human race and the garden of Eden. What are we to make of this?

According to the widely held "documentary hypothesis," the Pentateuch (that is, the first five books of the Bible) is a compilation of four major "documents" put together in their present form by Jewish priests and scribes during the fifth century B.C. These written documents, which include material composed at various times between the tenth and fifth centuries B.C., represent ancient Israelite oral tradition dating back to the days of Moses (c. 1300 B.C.) and Abraham (c. 2000 B.C.). Thus, the Pentateuch "embraces a great diversity of material which reflects Israel's pilgrimage from the time of Abraham to the [Babylonian] Exile [sixth century B.C.]."2 The four basic sources interwoven in the Pentateuch are commonly known as J, E, D and P. The J source, so-called because it was composed during the tenth century B.C. in Judah (or southern Israel) and because it gives "Jahveh" (or "Yahweh") as the name of God, is the earliest known written form of the religious traditions of ancient Israel. The Ε source, written in Ephraim (or northern Israel) and using “Elohim” for the name of God (and hence “E”), was produced some time between 900 and 750 B.C. The D source constitutes the basis of the book of Deuteronomy (“D”) and was put into written form in the seventh century B.C. And the Ρ source, which was composed during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., is a written expression of ancient traditions preserved by the priesthood ("P") in Jerusalem. These sources "were woven together in various stages at different times," and the Pentateuch as we know it "represents a composite of these sources, completed about 400 B.C."3 Since much of the oral tradition represented in these written documents can be traced back to the time of Moses and the Exodus, the ancient Jews and Christians referred to the Pentateuch as "the books of Moses."

The book of Genesis contains materials from J, Ε and P. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is part of P; and Genesis 2:4-25 is taken from J. And on this basis, it may be said that there are two — different but complementary — accounts of creation in the first two chapters of! Genesis. The first account (in Genesis 1) is concerned not only with the place of mankind in God's providential plan, but with the divine creation of the entire cosmos; whereas the second account (in Genesis 2) concentrates exclusively upon God's creation of, and original purpose for, the human race.

As pointed out above, the early chapters of Genesis are not to be read as literal descriptions of historical or scientific fact. What matters most is the theological meaning of this portion of Holy Scripture. Genesis 1-2 proclaims that God is a single, transcendent and supremely good being who created the world out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) and who is the universal Lord of all creation. This conception of God is radically different from the pagan theologies of such ancient peoples as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Indians, Greeks and Romans. In affirming that God is one (monotheism), Genesis 1-2 constitutes a rejection of the pagan belief in the existence of many gods (polytheism). In holding that God is transcendent — that is, above and beyond the world — the theology of Genesis is, in effect, departing from the pagan view that the gods are either part of or identical with the world process (pantheism). And in insisting that God is the Lord not only of Israel but of all the world, Genesis 1-2 stands in opposition to the pagan practice of worshiping one god (the god of the tribe or nation) above others (henotheism). Furthermore, the gods of the ancient pagan religions were frequently conceived of as amoral or even immoral — as very powerful but not necessarily very good — whereas the God of Genesis 1-2 is depicted as absolutely good, righteous and just. From the standpoint of the biblical witness, then, the God of Israel is the only God, and this one God is the transcendent, absolutely good and supreme Lord of the universe.

The biblical claim that God is the Creator of the world in an absolute sense, in the sense that he has created the world 'Out of nothing' establishes another major difference between the theology of Genesis 1-2 and the ancient pagan theologies. In the pagan religions, the cosmos is depicted either as eternal and therefore as uncreated, or as "created" by divine beings out of some pre-existent "matter." In other words, when the pagan theologies speak of "creation" at all, they present the gods as divine artists, shaping the world out of certain materials (e.g., earth, air, fire, water) which coexist eternally along with the gods themselves. Thus, the gods "create" not out of nothing but out of something, as do human artists. But in the Genesis account of creation, God simply causes the universe to be by an act of his will. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gn 1:1) — not out of eternally preexistent materials, but literally out of nothing. Or perhaps we should say, with Fr. Kallistos Ware, that God created the universe "out of His own self, which is love."4 In either interpretation, the Genesis account presents God as the absolute source of being, the transcendent and all-powerful originator of all things. Nothing can exist independently or outside of God's being and will. God is not merely a divine artist or craftsman, but the absolute Creator and ground of all being.

The biblical doctrine of creation out of nothing lays special emphasis upon the transcendence of God. The God of Genesis 1-2 exists prior to, above and beyond his creation. He is not a product of, nor is he identical with, the world process. As we have seen, the biblical doctrine of God as transcendent is a direct repudiation of all forms of pantheism. And yet, the early chapters of Genesis also make clear that God is omnipresent, that is, present and active everywhere in his creation. "As creator,. . . God is always at the heart of each thing, maintaining it in being."5 God is both transcendent and immanent, actively present in all things and yet above and beyond all things.

Another important implication of the biblical doctrine of God as creator is the rejection of all forms of nature worship. In ancient pagan religions, natural objects and forces were commonly worshiped as divine powers. For example, the sun, moon, stars and planets were often regarded as gods and venerated as such by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. But in the Genesis account of God's creation, these "celestial lights" are treated simply as natural objects placed in the heavens for the purpose of illuminating the earth (Gn 1:14-19). Also, the various species of animals, which were also sometimes divinized and worshiped in ancient pagan cults, are presented in Genesis 1 as God's creatures — subordinate not only to God but to man as well (1:20-26). Nature, therefore, is not divine but divinely created; not God but the creature of God. Thus, the first chapter of Genesis contains an implicit condemnation of nature religion, a condemnation that is made explicit in later portions of Holy Scripture (see, for example, Dt 4:19). To worship nature rather than God — the creation rather than the Creator — is to worship "false gods." Nature religion, from a biblical standpoint, is a form of idolatry. It is on this basis that some of the fathers of the Church (for example, St. Augustine of Hippo) condemned the pseudo-science of astrology: they considered it a kind of nature worship, looking to the forces of nature for "signs" of one's destiny rather than trusting in God for all things.

It is important to recognize, however, that while the world of nature is not God, it would be contrary to Holy Scripture to conclude that nature is not good. The six-day creation story in Genesis 1 makes it quite clear that God's creation — the natural order as well as mankind — is fundamentally good. "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (1:31). From an Orthodox Christian standpoint, therefore, it is a heresy to claim that the material world and human nature are inherently evil, for both man and nature are creatures of God, and God has judged them to be good. As we shall see, the Bible teaches that man and nature now exist in a fallen state, as a result of man's rebellion against God. Yet even when man acts in an evil manner, and when nature fails to display her original and divinely ordained benign order, the basic natures of man and the cosmos, because they are creations of God, remain essentially good.

There is yet another aspect of the theology of creation in Genesis 1-2 that deserves comment. In these initial chapters of the Bible, God is depicted as a person. The God of Genesis is not an impersonal cosmic force or world essence. He is a personal being who wills the world and mankind to be, who structures the world according to his own design, who cares for the welfare of man. A person is a self-conscious, intelligent, free and creative being. And the God of Genesis is depicted in these terms. He is intimately and personally related to his creation, he is involved in it, he is concerned about it.

In Orthodox theology, the personhood of God is defined in terms of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. God is a triune being in whom we must distinguish three persons — God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — who are neither three gods (tritheism) nor three parts or modes of God (modalism), but coequally and coeternally God. God is one essence (ousia) in three persons (hypostases).

Many Orthodox interpreters of the Bible have argued that the first chapter of Genesis contains a revelation of the Holy Trinity in action, of the three divine persons cooperating in the work of creation. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. . . . and the Spirit of God was moving [or soaring, or brooding] over the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light . . .' " (Gn 1:1-3). The expression "and God said" is repeated nine more times in Genesis 1. God creates the world by his Word. "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth" (Ps 33:6, 9). In the Gospel according to St. John, the creative Word of God is identified as God the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, who "became man" in Jesus Christ:

The Gospel of John is therefore "the indispensable key to the understanding of the first chapter of Genesis"6 And on this basis, Orthodox theologians have read Genesis 1 in trinitarian terms: God the Father, brooding or moving in the Holy Spirit, creates the universe through his Son, the divine Word.

The relationship between God and mankind is also given special attention in Genesis 1-2. Genesis 1 speaks of this relationship as follows:

And according to Genesis 2,

The biblical conception of man as the image and likeness of God has played a very significant role in the development of Orthodox theology. As the image and likeness of God (imago Dei), man is a person endowed with a spiritual life, intelligence, moral sensibility, a social nature (as an icon of the trinitarian life of God), freedom and creativity. Each human being is a unique and unrepeatable spiritual subject, who lives in relation to other (divine, angelic and human) persons, and who is capable of conscious, purposive and creative activity. As Fr. Ware puts it, "Man is a finite expression of God's infinite self-expression."7 God's decree that man is to "have dominion" over all other life forms on earth (Gn 1:26, 28) is the biblical sign of man's "God-like" nature.

Orthodox theology, following the lead of St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-200 A.D). and other ancient fathers of the Church, often draws a distinction between the image and the likeness of God. In Fr. Ware's summary of the patristic preaching, "The image . . . denotes man's potentiality for life in God, the likeness his realization of that potentiality."8 Man was not created as a spiritually perfect and immortal being. Originally innocent and good, he was called to become morally and spiritually perfect, to become like God. The biblical symbol of this moral and spiritual perfection is "the tree of life," that is, the source of immortality. Created as mortal beings like other natural creatures, but, unlike other creatures, endowed with the image of God, Adam and Eve were intended to grow into the moral and spiritual likeness of God and thus share in the goodness, wisdom and life of God himself. Through freely loving and obeying God, man was to enter into an eternal and ever-deepening communion with the triune God; he was to be united with God by sharing in the eternal life and goodness of the uncreated Trinity. "In other words, man at his first creation was innocent and capable of developing spiritually (the 'image'), but this development was not inevitable or automatic. Man was called to cooperate with God's grace and so, through the correct use of his free will, slowly and by gradual steps he was to become perfect in God (the 'likeness')."9

Man's basic need and ultimate purpose, then, is to become like God, to become one with God. Man was created for communion with God, and thus the final goal of human existence is participation "in the fullness of the divine life."10 "To believe that man is made in God's image is to believe that man is created for communion and union with God, and that if he rejects this communion he ceases to be properly man."11 Orthodox theologians employ the term "deification" (theosis) when speaking of the process of moral and spiritual growth through which man may achieve union with God. Fr. Thomas Hopko defines deification as "an unending process of growth and development" in which man becomes "through gracious communion with God in freedom all that God is by nature in the superabundant fulness of His inexhaustible and infinite Trinitarian being and life."12

The key to man's participation in the divine nature is the incarnation of God the Son in Jesus Christ the man. According to the Orthodox tradition, it was "God's eternal decision to associate man to his own blessedness."13 But man, as we have seen, although created good, was a finite, incomplete and therefore imperfect being, even in the garden of Eden. And for this reason, many Orthodox thinkers have argued that man's movement toward union with God would have required God's movement toward union with man, even if man had remained faithful to his Creator and therefore free from sin. Only if God condescended to become one with man could man realistically hope to become one with God. Thus, the incarnation of the divine Word — the union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ — is an essential feature of God's eternal plan for the world. And the incarnation would have taken place even if man had not fallen under the bondage of sin and death (as described symbolically in Genesis 3). What man's rebellion against God's divine order did was to separate man from "the tree of life," thereby making the death of Christ necessary. In the incarnation, God identifies himself with the human race. And to identify himself fully with a fallen and sinful humanity, God had to identify himself with human mortality; he had to enter into our death in order to raise us to eternal life. Had he not sinned against God, man would have remained free to partake of "the tree of life," and God's union with man in the incarnation would not have required the death of Christ. But the incarnation would have taken place nonetheless.

In Christ, then, God and man become one. Insofar as a human being is "in Christ" — through faith and through full participation in the life of the Church — he is one with God, because Christ's humanity is one with God. And it is through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit that the Christian believer is brought into an ever-developing and ever-deepening communion with God. The deification of man, therefore, is a process of moral and spiritual growth toward God the Father, through God the Son and in God the Holy Spirit. In this way, man may become a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Pt 1:4), a participant in the energies and eternal life of the triune God.

It is implicit in the preceding analysis that, while the Bible holds quite an exalted view of human nature, man is, after all, a creature who exists and thrives only by the mercy and grace of God. Human "creatureliness" is expressed in several ways in Genesis 1-3. In the first place, man is dependent for his very existence upon the creative will and activity of God (1:26-27 and 2:7). In the second place, man's harmony with God and the world requires his recognition of his subordination to and dependence upon God. While man is to "have dominion" over the earth, he is to exercise this dominion in the name of God. In Genesis 2:15, God places man in the garden of Eden and commands him "to till it and keep it." Man's dominion, in other words, is the dominion of stewardship — a dominion exercised by a steward under the authority of his Lord. And the garden of Eden is symbolic of man's original harmonious relationship with God and nature, prior to the disruption of the cosmic order wrought by human sin. In the third place, man's creatureliness is revealed in the fact that, in God's original dispensation, both men and animals are prohibited from killing one another. Both were to be vegetarians (see 1:29-30), living together under the divine rule of their Creator. Once again, man's earthly dominion is shown to be limited, rather than absolute. And in the fourth place, man's physical and spiritual well-being is contingent upon his faithful and loving obedience of God. This aspect of man's creatureliness is given its most striking expression in the story of the two trees in Genesis 2. To disobey God in pursuit of the worldly wisdom derived from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is to depart from "the tree of life," to lose the source of eternal life.

The divine prohibition against man's eating the forbidden fruit (see Gn 2:17), which emphasizes the lordship of God and man's need to obey his Creator, requires some explanation. Why should the acquisition of the knowledge of good and evil separate man from the life of God? In biblical thought, to know is to experience, to be involved or immersed in, to partake of the object of one's knowledge. Knowledge, for the human authors of the Bible, is not the abstract comprehension of concepts and theories, but the active and "existential" interpenetration of the knower and the known. Thus, when the Bible speaks of a man "knowing" a woman (for example, in Gn 4:1), it is referring to the act of sexual intercourse. To "know" good and evil, then, is to be personally engaged in the performance of both good and evil acts. This immersion of oneself in the ways of the world — where good and evil are mixed together — is symbolized in the Bible by "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and is, even now, forbidden by God.14

Thus, the Bible presents man both as the image and likeness of God and as one of God's creatures. The task of human life is to grow toward communion with God on the basis of faith, love and obedience — always keeping in mind the fundamental creature-liness of human nature.

An implicit sub-theme in Genesis 1-2 is a depiction of the original (prelapsarian) relationship between man and woman. Genesis 1:27-28 makes it clear that both men and women are created in the image of God, and that both are to exercise dominion over the earth. This text also stresses God's commandment that the human race is to "be fruitful" in multiplying itself — that is, in the procreation of children. Bearing children is a great blessing from the biblical point of view.

In Genesis 2:18-25, the relationship between man and woman is described in some detail. This text stresses the social nature of man: "It is not good that the man should be alone" (2:18). It also emphasizes that man's social nature — his need for companionship — cannot be fulfilled in his relationships with the animal world (2:19-20). While man is less than God, he is more than an animal. Man needs the presence of members of his own species — "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" — to satisfy his longing for fellowship. More particularly, man needs woman (and vice-versa) in order to be a complete human being: in the institution of marriage, man and woman "become one flesh" — one person, a completed image of God. In referring to the unashamed nakedness of the first man and woman (2:25), the Bible speaks symbolically "of their guiltless relation to God and to one another."15

Before the fall, then, the relationship between man and woman was one of equality, mutuality and harmony under the divine order of God. One of the original tasks of man and woman was to preserve, strengthen and deepen this divinely ordained relationship. But because of sin, as we shall see, the primal communion between man and woman — and between the human race and God — was subverted and destroyed.

The early chapters of Genesis contain several images of God's righteous condemnation of sin and his redemptive purpose for man and nature. In Genesis 3 there is the account of man's "original sin" and his consequent separation from the eternal life of God. After the expulsion of Adam from paradise, Genesis traces the spread of evil throughout virtually the entire world, leading up to the story of Noah and the great flood. Even the flood, however, does not halt the continuing activity of evil in the world; yet God in his mercy decides to work out the redemption of the world through a "chosen people," the nation of Israel. All these biblical images of divine judgment and redemption in response to human sin are, in effect, depictions of the human condition and of the human need for salvation from evil and reconciliation with God.

Genesis 3 does not mention the devil or the name of Satan. But the Christian tradition has always considered the serpent of this chapter to be a symbolic reference to the devil. And, indeed, other passages of the Bible, when speaking of the devil, identify him with the serpent in the garden of Eden (see Ws 2:24, Jn 8:44, and Rv 12:9 and 20:2). Before the creation of the human race, one of God's angels (sometimes referred to as Lucifer), seeking to take God's place, led an angelic rebellion against God. But the rebellion was put down by St. Michael the archangel and his legions, and the rebellious angels were cast out of heaven. Thenceforth, the leader of the fallen angels was known as Satan (which means adversary, accuser, or enemy) and as the devil (Greek, diabolos, "he who takes a bite," the biter)16. Ancient Jewish and Christian traditions also hold that Satan was originally the angel appointed by God to guard the earth, and especially the garden of Eden (see Ezk 28:11-19). And God, for reasons of his own, has continued to allow Satan and his angelic underlings (now known as demons) to intervene in and influence earthly affairs.

According to such fathers of the Church as St. Irenaeus of Lyons and St. Gregory of Nyssa, the satanic rebellion was a response to God's revelation of his intention to identify himself with mankind and to exalt human nature above the angels in the incarnation and ascension of Christ. The mystery of the incarnation is "the self-abandonment of the divine Person of the Word, a 'little lower than the angels' (Hebrews 2:7)." And the mystery of the ascension is "the exaltation of human nature above all the worlds of the angels." This "double mystery" overthrows "the natural order of things" and "throws the angels into a state of astonishment."17 The sin of the fallen angels was that they refused "to recognize the dignity of Adam created in the image of God" and to "accept the future prospect of an Incarnation of the Word."18 If this is true, then the satanic promise that by partaking of the forbidden fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" Adam and Eve would become "like gods" (Gn 3:5, Septuagint rendering) is quite fitting. The term "gods" in this context refers to members of God's heavenly court — that is, angels. By enticing Adam and Eve to membership in the angelic choirs rather than to union with God himself, the devil, having failed in his attempt to replace God in heaven, seeks to console himself by causing the intended beneficiaries of God's glorious plan for the deification of man to rebel against that plan, to desire what they cannot have and what is contrary to the divine will. Thus, "there has been a double fall: first of the angels, and then of man."19

The satanic temptation of man takes the form of a distortion of divine truth. In enticing Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit, the serpent, who was "more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made" assured her by saying: "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil" (Gn 3:1, 4-5). Thus, the devil seeks to arouse doubt, suspicion and pride in the minds of men. He questions the truth of God's warning that to partake of the forbidden fruit is to die; he implies that God's prohibition against eating the forbidden fruit is based upon an unjust desire to exclude mankind from the angelic choirs in heaven; and he promises that the forbidden fruit — which is "good for food, a delight to the eyes, and able to make one wise" — will exalt Adam and Even into the ranks of the angels. Man is thereby led to doubt God's truth, to suspect God's motives and to pridefully seek his own self-aggrandizement rather than the purposes of God.

The same pattern of deception is present in the satanic temptation of Christ (see Mt 4:1-11 and Lk 4:1-13). But Christ, unlike Adam and Eve, successfully resists the enticements of the devil. Indeed, from an Orthodox perspective, man does in Christ what he failed to do in Adam. But let us postpone this part of our discussion until a later chapter.

The Nature of Sin and Evil. Genesis 3 also teaches us a good deal concerning the nature of sin and evil. Sin is presented not as a natural weakness but as a moral failure. The biblical conception of sin presupposes the reality of human and angelic freedom. Sin is thus an act of the will leading to a revolt against God, "a conscious act of disobedience, a deliberate rejection of God's love, a freely-chosen turning from God to self."20 Before the satanic rebellion and the fall of man, evil was present in God's creation only as a "subsistent potentiality," in order to make the moral and spiritual freedom of angels and men real — for where there is no possibility of making a wrong choice, there can be no moral or spiritual freedom. In God's original dispensation, evil was merely possible, "contingent upon a morally [and spiritually] wrong choice."21 Evil became an "existent actuality" not through the direct activity of God but through the abuse of freedom by angels and men. God permits evil in the form of morally and spritually wrong choices and actions because he respects our freedom; but it would be misleading (or even contradictory) to say that God, who is supremely good, is the direct cause of evil.

The Consequences of Sin. Man's disobedience of God leads to a world in which the forces of disorder, incoherence, contradiction, hostility, fragmentation, suffering, death and anxiety reign. According to the biblical text, the first consequence of human sin is a sense of exposure and shame: Adam and Eve experience their nakedness, which previously connoted their openness to one another and to God, as a kind of vulnerability deriving from their guilty transgression of God's will (Gn 3:7). After allowing themselves to be "clothed" with the false promises of the devil, they can now "see through" their own pretensions and are vividly aware that God will be able to discern their complete moral and spiritual impoverishment. Their nakedness is no longer a symbol of their innocence and their intimate relationship with God but rather a sign of their guilt and their consequent alienation from their divine Father. Their moral and spiritual nakedness leads Adam and Eve to cover themselves up with garments made of fig leaves, to hide from God and to evade their own responsibility for having sinned against their Creator (Gn 3:7-13).

Also in the biblical account, Adam blames Eve for his sin, and Eve seeks to shift the burden of her own guilt to the serpent. Adam actually suggests that the responsibility for his transgressions belongs not primarily with his wife, but with God: 'The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" (3:12). Instead of emphasizing his own deliberate activity, Adam chooses to concentrate upon what Eve has done and even upon what God has done. Thus, sin leads to guilt, and guilt is evaded through the concoction of excuses, which constitute a refusal to accept responsibility for one's own actions. "Men have always tried to shuffle out of responsibility for their failures. We blame our instincts, our environment, our parents, our wives or our neighbors, and if all else fails we can always blame God."22

But the human "cover-up" does not work. Needless to say, God is not fooled by the fig leaves and the excuses; man's transgression is judged and condemned. The harmonious relationship between the sexes is disrupted, and the husband becomes the "ruler" of his wife (Gn 3:16). As a result of sin, the original union of man and woman is broken, and the "war between the sexes" begins. On a deeper level, this "division" of man and woman may be viewed as a division of human nature itself. As pointed out earlier, the divine image in man is expressed in the union of "male and female" (1:27) and of husband and wife (2:24-25). The disjunction of man and woman as a consequence of sin is therefore a sundering of the integrity of human nature itself. Furthermore, the smooth interaction between man and nature which prevailed before the advent of sin is undermined. Woman's pain in childbearing (3:16) and the fact that man must toil and struggle in order to eke out a living from the soil (3:IT-19) are images used to illustrate the postlapsarian conflict between man and the natural order.

But the most grievous result of man's sin is his alienation from God and his consequent loss of access to eternal life. Man's original mortality, which he was to overcome by growing toward the likeness of God, is now made permanent (Gn 3:19), "an inevitable fate that haunts man throughout life."23 The story of man's expulsion from the garden of Eden (3:22-24), his loss of immediate contact with God and thus with "the tree of life," is crucial to an understanding of the Orthodox perspective on the human condition. Adam and Eve, as God's creatures, owed their love and obedience to God alone. But they submitted their wills to the temptations of the devil and devoted themselves to self-love rather than to the love of God. As a result of this rebellion against and rejection of God (symbolized by man's partaking of the forbidden fruit), the human race has been separated from the presence and life of God. And since the postlapsarian world is a broken world, a world conditioned by sin and death, "a world in which it is easy to do evil and hard to do good,"24 it is impossible for man to work himself back into paradise through his own moral and spiritual efforts. And because the human race was created in the image of the tripersonal God — and is therefore an "interdependent and coinherent" society of persons — the "original sin" of Adam and Eve "affects the human race in its entirety."25

The solidarity of the human race, the corporate nature of man, is therefore the ontological basis of our "Adamic inheritance." This does not mean that we are guilty of the sins of others or of Adam's "original sin" We are born into a world conditioned by Adam's sin and by the accumulated sins of others; we are involved in and influenced by that world; and our lives are often shaped by the ongoing consequences of human sinfulness. But we are guilty of — and therefore morally and spiritually responsible for — our own actual sins, and not the sins of others. The human tendency to sin is "original" (or "congenital") in that it is a natural consequence of being born into a fallen world. In this restricted sense, we may be "born sinful," but we are not "born guilty." The Orthodox Church has always repudiated the doctrine of "original guilt" — that is, the view that all men share not only the consequences of but also the guilt for the sin of Adam and Eve.

The Protoevangel — God's Promise of Redemption. Although Genesis 3 is primarily concerned with the theological interpretation of man's expulsion from paradise, the text also contains a suggestion of God's continuing concern for the welfare of the human race. In Genesis 3:15, God says to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." This verse has been understood by Orthodox theologians and other Christian scholars as a "shadow" of the gospel of Christ, as a "protoevangel." "This is the first promise of a Redeemer. The conflict of the ages is predicted — a conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The Redeemer will finally bring ruin to Satan and his seed although in the process Satan will bruise the Redeemer, ... as took place at Calvary."26 It is also interesting that the mention of the woman's seed in this verse is the only example of such an expression in all of scripture. Many commentators have interpreted this unique passage as a reference to the virgin birth of Christ.

The protoevangel is also present in Genesis 3:21, where God, in recognition of man's lost innocence and consequent moral and spiritual exposure, clothes Adam and Eve in animal skins prior to driving them out of Eden. This may be viewed as still another sign of the lapsed harmony between God, man and nature in that animals have to die in order that man might live. But the text has also been interpreted as a symbol of God's continuing providential care for mankind even in a time of judgment. And the "garments of skins" (God-given and not man-made like the ineffective aprons of fig leaves) have been regarded as a typological image of Christ. If man is ever to return to the presence of God, he will have to put off his old nature (Eph 4:22) and "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rm 13:14). Sinful man must be clothed with the righteousness of Christ if he is to regain his place in the divine order. And the "shadow-gospel" of Genesis 3:15 and 21 appears to be the first scriptural promise of God's redemption of man and the world from satanic bondage.

Another depiction of divine judgment and redemption is contained in Genesis 4-8. The biblical account of man's expulsion from God's paradise is followed immediately by the story of the first murder (4:1-16). Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, slays his younger brother Abel. Without going into the details of this section of Genesis, we may say that "man's revolt against God leads to his revolt against his fellow man; the crime of murder confirms the fallen state of man."27

After murdering his brother, Cain is removed still further from the presence of God. He is sent off, away from his parents, to "the land of Nod, east of Eden" (Gn 4:16). The human race is, at this point, divided into two parts, as is indicated in the two genealogies in Genesis 4-5. A distinction is made here between the "Cain line" (4:17-24) and the "Seth line" (4:25-5:32). The Cain line is characterized by the cries of vengeance and the murderous acts of Cain himself and of his great-great-great-grandson, Lamech (see 4:23-24). The Seth line-Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve (4:25) — is presented as the true line of descent from Adam (5:3) and is characterized by its initial holiness (5:18-24) and devotion to God (4:26). With the advent of Seth and his offspring, the sons of Adam "began to call upon the name of the Lord" (4:26). In other words, while the Cain line is cut off from "the generations of Adam" and steeped in evil, the Seth line is the legitimate continuation of Adam's seed and is oriented toward the worship of God.

Genesis 6 tells of the growing wickedness of the world in those days and of God's decision to destroy human civilization by sending a great deluge upon the earth. The chapter begins, in verses 1-4, with a strange and difficult passage:

When man began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

Some interpreters have held that the "sons of God" referred to in this text were fallen angels (or demons) who married human women and "spawned a mixed race" of giants or monsters. But since angels and demons are pure spirits — who may appear in human form (see Gn 18-19) but who cannot be actually "incarnate" in a material body 28 — it is difficult to see how they could impregnate "the daughters of men." A more natural reading of the text would indicate that "the sons of God" were descendants of Seth who were guilty of intermarriage with women descended from Cain. From this point of view, the progeny of these unholy marriages are not giants or monsters, but "strong, violent, tyrannous men of great wickedness."29 Given the emphasis upon the divinely ordained separation of the Cain and Seth lines in Genesis 4:17-5:32, the mixing of the two stocks would certainly be an abomination in the sight of God and a fitting introduction to the tale of corruption, judgment and catastrophe contained in Genesis 6:5-7:24.

In resolving to destroy the disordered and wicked world brought into existence by human sin, God chooses to save a remnant of men and animals as the basis for a "new world" (Gn 6:5-22). Noah, a righteous descendant of Seth (5:28-32), "finds favor in the eyes of the Lord" (6:8) and is instructed to build a great ark in order to save himself, his family and a large number of birds and beasts from the coming destruction (6:9-22). The biblical description of the great flood appears in Genesis 7-8. The flood raged for 150 days, covering the entire planet to a depth of five miles and leaving only Noah and those with him in the ark alive.

Again, we must remind ourselves that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are made up of legendary stories and parables aimed at the revelation of religious truths concerning God, man and nature, not scientific accounts of the history of mankind and the world. What appears in this section of the Bible is the folklore of ancient Israel, organized in such a manner as to serve theological purposes. Many contemporary biblical scholars regard the story of the great flood in Genesis 6-8 as "the Hebrew version of a much older Babylonian myth, which related the adventures . . . of one Utnapishtim, a Babylonian worthy who is warned by the God Ea of an impending deluge, builds an ark and is saved in the same manner as Noah."30 Archeological studies have indicated that this ancient Near Eastern legend is based upon the actual occurrence of a major flood in Mesopotamia about 4000 B.C.; but the evidence also makes it clear that this inundation was a local one and that it did not cover the entire earth.

It must be emphasized, however, that there are important differences between the biblical and the Babylonian flood stories. The Babylonian version reflects a pagan religious and mythological perspective: 'There are many gods who decree the flood for no apparent reason. The hero is warned by one of them, again for no apparent moral reason." But in the biblical account, "the one God, supreme lord of the situation, decrees the flood because of man's sin. Noah is saved because of his justice."31 The aim of the biblical account is to emphasize God's judgment and condemnation of sin and his steadfast love for the righteous — his refusal to tolerate the unrequited practice of evil and his merciful redemption of that remnant of the human race which strives to conform to the divine will. Thus, in religious and moral content the biblical story of the great flood is entirely different from, and infinitely superior to, the Babylonian version.

There is a relationship — in the Bible and in Orthodox theology — between the story of the great flood and the sacrament of baptism. Indeed, the great flood might also be called "the great baptism." In the Bible, water is often employed as a symbol of the world, especially the fallen world, which has been infected by chaos, evil and death. St. Matthew's account of Jesus walking on the sea is an illustration of this point. Jesus invites Peter to join him on the surface of the water. And at first Peter also walks on the water, "but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, 'Lord, save me.’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, Ό man of little faith, why did you doubt?' “ (Mt 14:28-31). Here, Peter's sinking into the sea, and his need to be saved from drowning, is symbolic of man's loss of life as a result of losing faith in God. When Peter takes his eyes off Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, he begins to slip into the chaos and death of the waters, he faces being swallowed up by a fallen world and he needs to be lifted up again by the Lord himself.

In the sacrament of baptism, a person is immersed in water. This immersion is an entering into the death of Christ. And emergence from the waters of baptism is a participation in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. As we have seen, sinful man has been alienated from the life of God. But through the incarnation of God in Christ, man is given a second chance to unite himself to God in faith, love and obedience. In dying for us upon the cross, Christ enters into our death and transforms it into a path to new life. Christ's death destroys death itself, because Christ is Life. Through Christ's immersion in "the waters of chaos, evil, and death," those waters — which may also be taken as a symbol of the entire fallen world — are "filled with the presence of God."32 The waters of baptism, therefore, represent not only death, but a world which has been transfigured by the incarnate life of God. Through the baptismal rite, we die to sin and rise to eternal life in Christ.

St. Peter makes the relationship between the great flood and the sacrament of baptism explicit. He says that Christ's saving work was foreshadowed "in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pt 3:18, 20-22). The great flood is a symbol of God's eternal judgment of sin. St. Peter depicts Noah as a type of those who look to God in faith and are thus mercifully redeemed from the destruction which sin brings. And the ark of Noah is a type of Christ, in whom the faithful remnant is "saved through water."

The parable of the great flood is followed by the story of God's covenant with Noah (Gn 9:1-17). According to the Bible, God has entered into a number of "covenants" (or agreements) with human individuals, nations and the human race in general. These covenants are "sovereign pronouncements" which establish "relationships of responsibility" between God and men. In his covenants, God sets down the conditions of human existence and makes promises concerning the future. Some of these promises will be fulfilled unconditionally, while the fulfillment of others depends upon man's faithful response to the commandments of God. Each covenant, moreover, is accompanied by a sign or seal given by God as evidence that an agreement has been made. Three such covenants are given explicit consideration in the Pentateuch. The covenant with Noah (Gn 9:1-17) is unilateral in that it is not conditioned upon man's faithful response to God, it is extended to all creation, "and its sign is a natural phenomenon" — the rainbow. The covenant with Abraham (Gn 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 15:1-7, 18-21; and 17:18) "presupposes his personal commitment to God, is extended only to his descendants, and its sign is circumcision." The covenant with Israel (Ex 19-24) "requires continuing loyalty ... is extended to the nation, and its sign is the Sabbath observance" (see Ex 31:16-17).33

The Noahic covenant is based upon God's presupposition of the moral and spiritual disorder caused by sin, for "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gn 8:21). The Lord's decree is that man's dominion over nature will be "exercised, not in peace, but through fear."34

The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood (Gn 9:2-4).

The killing and eating of animals — which had been forbidden in God's original dispensation· — is now acknowledged as a central feature of human culture. Man is, however, prohibited from devouring the blood of animals; for, in biblical thought, blood is considered the essence of life, and life ultimately belongs not to man but to God.

The covenant also prohibits the murder of human beings and establishes capital punishment as a divinely ordained institution. "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image" (Gn 9:6). The hostile relationships between man and animals and between man and man, which are alluded to in these texts, are symbolic of the corruption of the world wrought by human sinfulness.

The scope of God's covenant with Noah is universal — that is, it extends beyond Noah to his descendants and indeed to all animal life (Gn 9:8-10). And the promise of this covenant is "that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (9:11). This promise does not mean that God will not continue to judge, condemn and punish sin. But it does mean that God's creation will not be finally destroyed by the powers of evil. God's redemptive purpose will prevail. And as has already been noted, the sign of the Noahic covenant is the rainbow (9:11-17), a sign of God's promise of redemption to Noah and to all the world.

The Continuing Challenge of Evil. We have seen that the Noahic covenant presupposes the continuing presence and operation of sin in the world, even after the great flood. Genesis 9:18-11:9 amply illustrates the ongoing sinfulness of the human race.

First, there is the strange tale of the sin of Ham, one of Noah's three sons, in Genesis 9:20-27: Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Cannan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave/'

There are two major puzzles contained in this text: What, exactly, was the nature of Ham's offense? And why does Noah pronounce his curse on Canaan, Ham's son (10:6), rather than upon Ham himself?

The essence of Ham's sin is expressed in the phrase, "saw the nakedness of his father," a phrase which must be understood in the light of chapter 18 of the book of Leviticus. In that text, God proclaims that it is an abomination for a man to "uncover the nakedness" of his father, his mother, his sister, his children, his grandchildren, his aunts and uncles, his sisters-in-law and his daughters-in-law (Lv 18:6-16). What is condemned here is any act of incest. And it is quite clear that the expression "uncover the nakedness" refers to various forms of sexual intercourse. It should also be noted that homosexuality is condemned in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, and in Romans 1:26-27. What Ham did, then, was to engage in some form of incestuous and homosexual intercourse with his father. (It is, by the way, interesting that the Bible contains no suggestion that Noah's drunkenness was in any way reprehensible).

Noah's curse upon Canaan is quite consistent with the ancient Near Eastern view that a man's proudest hope lies in the future prosperity of his descendants (his "seed"). Thus, the curse upon Canaan is a curse upon Ham. And the Bible tells us that the sexual atrocities that later became common among the Canaanite tribes of ancient Palestine resulted from the sin of Ham and led to the eventual conquest of the Canaanites by the people of Israel. The Israelites were, as we shall see, descendants of Shem, who is blessed and named by Noah as the conqueror by whom Canaan will be enslaved.35 This scandalous profile of sin and congenital sexual disease is an extraordinarily dramatic and apt example of the depth of human sinfulness.

The continuing challenge of evil in the postdiluvian age is also portrayed in Genesis 10. The descendants of Noah are divided into three major groups: the sons of Japheth (10:1-5), the sons of Ham (10:6-20) and the sons of Shem (10:21-32). And these three groups are further subdivided into a multitude of peoples, cultures and nations. These genealogies may, of course, constitute a primitive attempt to account for the geographical and ethnological distribution of the world's human population. But the theological significance of this rather undramatic section of Genesis is its emphasis upon the division, separation and fragmentation of the human race, which is one of the fundamental conditions of "man's inhumanity to man." The forces of cultural chauvinism, ethnocentrism and nationalism are, indeed, among the most obvious signs of humanity's loss of its unity under God. And this loss of original unity is surely one of the major symptoms of human sinfulness.

The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 is a final illustration of the human corruption that prevails in the world after the flood. This legendary tale is based upon a well-known fact: human beings speak various languages, and, even among those who share the same tongue, effective and meaningful communication is always difficult and sometimes impossible. Human beings, therefore, suffer from a "confusion of tongues" and often cannot understand one another. This "crisis of communication," the Bible tells us, is a sign of man's fallenness, a "symbol of mankind's effort to proclaim their independence from God."86 It is a further expression of man's sinful rebelliousness against God and of God's consequent judgment of man and his world.

In this chapter, we have surveyed the great themes of Genesis 1-11:God's creation of man and the cosmos; the sinfulness of man and his consequent alienation from God; God's eternal judgment, condemnation and punishment of sin; and God's redemptive purpose for man and the world. The overall message of Genesis 1-11 is that man's failure to love and obey God, his desire to live "on his own" without the presence of God, is the source of all the anxiety, meaninglessness, and horror of human existence. The centrality of God in biblical thought reminds us that God is the foundation and the fountain of life, and that the love of God is the fulfillment of man, for only in God can we find our true selves and our salvation.

The genealogy which traces the descent of the Semites from Shem to Abraham (Gn 11:10-32) is the final sign of God's redemptive work presented in Genesis 1-11. In Abraham, God chooses a new remnant. The descendants of Abraham will be the people of Israel, the chosen people. And it is from the chosen people that the Redeemer promised in Genesis 3:15 will come. The "seed of the woman" derives from the long line of Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and David. Jesus Christ, the "son of David," born of a virgin, will be the greatest in the line of "the sons of God" (see Mt 1:1-18 and Lk 3:23-38). And this genealogical progression is carried forward significantly in the eleventh chapter of Genesis. In the coming of Abraham there is new hope, for the movement of God's redemptive will is accelerated in the direction of the "new and everlasting covenant" of Jesus Christ.

Of the forty-nine books that make up the Old Testament, twenty-three are devoted to the history of ancient Israel. The period from Abraham to Moses is described in the Pentateuch, beginning with the twelfth chapter of Genesis and running through the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth tell the story of Israel's conquest and settlement of the land of Canaan (or Palestine). The rise of the Hebrew empire under Saul, David and Solomon and the collapse of that empire under Solomon's descendants is discussed in great detail in 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Tobit and Judith. The history of the Jews from the sixth century B.C. to the time of Christ — during which time Palestine was dominated successively by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans — is told in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 1 Esdras and 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees. The noncanonical books of 2 Esdras and 4 Maccabees also contain information pertaining to this late phase of Old Testament history.

From the standpoint of Orthodox Christianity, the historical writings of the Old Testament point toward the incarnation of God the Son in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament as a whole is a foreshadowing of the New Testament revelation, a preparation for the advent of Christ. St. Paul stresses the Christocentric nature of the Old Testament revelation in 2 Timothy: "From childhood" he writes, "you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Tm 3:15). These words were written in 67 or 68 A.D., when the New Testament had not yet been completed. Thus, the "Holy Scriptures" mentioned here by St. Paul are the writings of the Old Testament, writings which, he says, lead us to salvation in Christ. Following St. Paul and other New Testament writers, the Orthodox Church regards the Old Testament as a preliminary revelation of God's providential plan for the salvation of the world. The Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, is the book of salvation; and salvation comes through Jesus Christ. Thus, the Bible as a whole is about Christ. The Old Testament tells of God's promise to save through Christ; and the New Testament tells of the fulfillment of that promise. God has acted to save mankind and the world through Israel, his chosen people, and through the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth.

God's intention to identify himself with the human race in the incarnation required his identification with one of the many nations of the world. If God the Son was to be "made man" in a fallen and fragmented world of many cultures and nations, he would have to be born into one of those cultures or nations. In choosing Israel as his people, and in promising to send a Messiah who would save Israel and all the world from the forces of evil, God began the process that would culminate in the birth and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. The Bible does not tell us why God chose Israel as his people rather than some other nation; it is simply revealed that this is what he has done. And the Old Testament history of ancient Israel, in describing and interpreting God's dealings with his people from the days of Abraham to the Roman conquest of Palestine, is a revelation of the manner in which both Israel and the world were made ready for the coming of Christ, the Son of God incarnate.

In the following pages of this chapter, we shall, first, survey the history of ancient Israel as presented in the Old Testament, and, second, we shall attempt to decipher the theological significance of that history from an Orthodox Christian point of view.

For the purposes of analysis and interpretation, it is convenient to distinguish between six major periods or stages in the history of ancient Israel: (l) the age of the patriarchs (c. 2000-1700 B.C.); (2) the era of Moses and the exodus of Israel from Egypt (c. 1290-1250 B.C.); (3) the conquest of Canaan by Israel (c. 1250-1200 B.C.); (4) the period of the twelve-tribe confederacy (c. 1200-1025 B.C,); (5) the rise and fall of the Hebrew empire (1025-538 B.C); and (6) the period from the Babylonian exile of the Jews to the Roman conquest of Palestine (538-37 B.C.), often referred to as the "restoration period."

The story of the patriarchs (or fathers) of Israel is told in the book of Genesis, chapters 12 through 50. The central theme of these chapters is God's covenant with Abraham and the renewal of that covenant with Abraham's descendants, the people of Israel. (The Latin term testamentum, from which the Old and New Testaments are named, means "covenant"). In Abraham, the nation of Israel was elected as the people of God and was promised "everlasting possession" of the land of Canaan (or Palestine). Through faith in and obedience to God, Israel was to enjoy liberty, peace and happiness in the "promised land"

The development of the covenant relationship between God and Abraham is recorded in Genesis 11:10-25:18. God called Abraham to be the father of the chosen people, promising him that. "... I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves" (Gn 12:2-3). The Bible also tells us that Abraham was chosen by God to be the patriarch, not only of the nation of ancient Israel, but of "a multitude of nations" (17:4-6). In Genesis 17:7-8, God tells Abraham that "... I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." According to Genesis 17:9-14, the fulfilment of God's covenant promises is contingent upon the faith of Abraham and his descendants, and the rite of circumcision was instituted as a sign of the covenant between God and his people. From the standpoint of Orthodox Christianity, it was through Christ and his Church that Abraham became the father of many nations, and it is those who live in faithful union with Christ who are the descendants of Abraham. In Christ, the rite of circumcision has been transcended by the sacrament of baptism; and those who are baptized into Christ will inherit the true promised land, the kingdom of heaven, of which the biblical land of Canaan (or Palestine) was a physical symbol.

Genesis 25:19-36:43 describes God's renewal and continuation of the Abrahamic covenant with Abraham's son "Isaac and with Isaac's son Jacob. The Bible testifies to the strength of Abraham's faith in God and to Isaac's spiritual steadfastness and innocence. But Jacob was a sinful man whose faith in God was weak and impure. The Bible depicts his early life as a long and roundabout journey toward righteousness and fellowship with God. Jacob is pictured as one who has "striven with God and with men"; and God renames him "Israel," which means "he who strives with God" (Gn 32:28). This change of name is made in recognition of Jacob's victorious spiritual struggle to conquer his own sinful nature and to achieve reconciliation with God and his fellow man.

Jacob, or "Israel," fathered twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. The "sons of Israel" are also the fathers of the twelve tribes of Hebrews which constituted the ancient nation of Israel. Thus, "Israel" is a name for the descendants of Abraham as well as the name of an individual (Jacob).

The history of the sons of Israel is recounted in Genesis 37-50. Joseph, the second youngest son of Jacob, is the major figure in this history. His elder brothers, resentful because Jacob "loved Joseph more than any other of his children," cast him into a pit.

Joseph was rescued by traveling merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave- There he found favor with his master, Potiphar, until he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife of trying to seduce her, and as a result of this charge, Joseph was thrown into prison. Then Pharoah (the king of Egypt) had a troubling dream which no one could explain to him. Hearing that Joseph possessed a special gift of interpretation, Pharoah sent for the young prisoner. Joseph interpreted Pharoah's dream, predicting that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine, and he advised that large amounts of food be carefully stored away as a reserve. Pharoah then put Joseph in charge of the storage project, which was successfully carried out. And as a result of his success, Joseph became a prominent and powerful man in the land of Egypt.

When the predicted famine arrived, Joseph's brothers were among those foreigners who came to Egypt to purchase food. Joseph forgave them for their sin against him and sent for his father, Jacob (Israel). Thus, Israel and his people went to dwell in the land of Egypt. And the nation of Israel continued its sojourn in Egypt from the time of Jacob and Joseph until the time of Moses.

The biblical account of Israel's exodus from Egypt and return to the land of Canaan is contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which were written, edited and compiled by Jewish priests and scribes between the tenth and fifth centuries B.C.

The book of Exodus is divided into two main parts: chapters 1-18 describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt and their deliverance from their Egyptian yoke under the leadership of the prophet, Moses; and chapters 19-40 describe God's renewal of his covenant with Moses and the people of Israel.

The oppression of Israel by Egypt is described in Exodus 1. After the death of Joseph and his brothers, the people of Israel prospered in Egypt — "they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them" (1:7). Then "there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph" (1:8). This king, probably Seti I (1309-1290 B.C.), feared the strength and numbers of the tribes of Israel. He therefore enslaved them and ordered that their male infants be drowned.

It was into this situation that Moses was born. His parents were Israelites, members of the tribe of Levi. His mother sought to save his life by hiding him among the reeds at the brink of the Nile River. The child was found by Pharoah's daughter, who adopted him and gave him the name of Moses, which means "to draw out." He who was "drawn out" of the river would live to draw his people out of Egypt (see Ex 2:1-10). Although he was brought up in the Egyptian court, Moses somehow discovered his Hebrew roots and developed a strong sense of loyalty to his own people. As a young man, he killed an Egyptian whom he saw beating an Israelite; and, when his act was made known to Pharoah, Moses was forced to flee to the land of Midian (that is, present-day Saudi Arabia). In Midian, he married the daughter of a Midianite priest and became a shepherd (2:11-22). Moses' family life and settled pastoral existence were, however, soon disrupted. For God appeared to him in a burning bush, and commanded him to return to Egypt, where he would be the Lord's instrument in delivering the people of Israel from their bondage (2:23-4:31).

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt is recounted in Exodus 5-15. Returning from Midian to Egypt, probably during the reign of Ramses II (1290-1224 B.C.), Moses called upon Pharoah to let the people of Israel go. But Pharoah refused to release the Israelites from their bondage. Thus, God sent a series of ten plagues upon Egypt in order to change Pharoah's mind. The people of Israel were unaffected by these calamities, and, after the tenth plague — the death of all the first-born of Egypt, both man and beast — Pharoah agreed to Moses’ demand that the Israelites be set free.

Thus, the people of Israel, led by Moses, began their exodus from the land of Egypt. As Israel moved eastward from Egypt toward the Sinai peninsula, Pharoah regretted that he had granted his Hebrew slaves their liberty. Mobilizing his military forces, Pharoah pursued the Israelites as they made their way toward "the Red Sea" (The Hebrew phrase which is commonly translated as "Red Sea" might be more accurately rendered as "sea of reeds" which was not the Red Sea itself, but a shallower body of water farther north). When Moses and the people of God, followed by the Egyptian host, reached the sea, Moses, upon the command of the Lord, "stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided" (Ex 14:21). The terrified Israelites were therefore able to cross the sea. But when Pharoah's forces tried to pursue the fugitive Hebrews, the Lord caused the waters of the sea to return to their "wonted flow," and the Egyptians were utterly destroyed (see 14:22-31). And the people of Israel, finally and decisively delivered from bondage in Egypt, "feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses" (14:31).

The story of the exodus contains two images that have played important roles in the development of traditional Christian sacramental theology. First, there is the feast of Passover, instituted by God during the tenth plague inflicted upon Egypt. The details of the feast are contained in Exodus 12, where the Lord instructs the Israelites on how to prepare the Passover lamb:

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. . . . The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them. . . . And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. . . . The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt (12:1-13).

Orthodox sacramental theology interprets the Passover events as symbolic foreshadowings of the holy eucharist. The Passover lamb is sacrificed and eaten, and the people of Israel are saved from God's wrath by the blood of the lamb. In the New Testament, Christ is the Passover lamb, whose death on the cross saves man kind from sin and death. And in the Christian sacrament of holy communion, the people of God, in eating and drinking the consecrated bread and wine, partake of the very body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ — "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29).

The story of Israel's miraculous crossing of the sea has also been interpreted in sacramental terms. The story is, in effect, an icon of the sacrament of baptism. The people of God enter the sea, which ordinarily would mean certain death; but they are delivered from the Egyptians through the intervention of God. As indicated in chapter 2, the sacrament of baptism, which requires immersion in and emergence from water, is a participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. And the Exodus account of the crossing of the sea is one of several important Old Testament images that prepare the way for the full New Testament development of the baptismal theme.

Following their liberation from the land of Egypt, the people of Israel were led by Moses across the Sinai desert toward Mount Sinai (Ex 15-18). The journey was a difficult one, and the people complained frequently against Moses. But time and again, when it seemed that they would be overcome by their hunger and thirst, the Israelites were sustained by miraculous interventions by God. The Lord provided them with fresh water (see 15:22-27, 17:1-7), and with meat and bread (see chapter 16). He also gave the people of Israel victory in their battle against the Amalekites, a fierce desert tribe that sought to destroy and plunder the wandering Hebrews (17:8-16). And thus, with God's help, Moses and Israel reached Mount Sinai, a site, as we shall see, of great spiritual significance. Again, these stories of God's sustenance of his people in the desert are commonly interpreted by Orthodox commentators as images and foreshadowings of the definitive work of salvation which was effected by Jesus Christ centuries after the time of Moses.

Exodus 1-18, which tells of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, is followed by an account of God's renewal of his covenant with Moses and the people of Israel (Ex 19-40). As we have seen, the covenant relationship between God and Israel began with Abraham. In Exodus, that relationship is renewed and significantly extended. At Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses, saying, "Thus you shall say to the ... people of Israel: '. . . If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ " (19:3-6). Here, God's covenant with Abraham is extended to the entire nation of Israel (Abraham's descendants) and is conditioned upon the nation's faithful and obedient response to the Word of the Lord.

Following Israel's acceptance of the covenant, God called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai and revealed to him the divine law, which is recorded in Exodus 20-23. The law, as expressed in the book of Exodus, is divided into two parts: the Ten Commandments (20:1-17) and the Covenant Code (20:21-23:33). The Ten Commandments, which are stated in Exodus 20 and also in Moses' reflections upon the law in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, constitute a revelation of the moral nature of God, of his holiness and righteousness and of the standards he expects his people to live up to. They also serve as a preface and introduction to the Covenant Code. This code, sometimes called the "Book of the Covenant," contains a collection of detailed and specific commandments concerning religious worship and ritual, the treatment of slaves and servants, murder, criminal assault, theft, property rights, usury, slander, witchcraft, sexual conduct, idolatry, the observance of the Sabbath, and so on.

All in all, the divine law, as set down in Exodus 20-23, is a revelation of God's will for his people — that by obeying the Word of the Lord they might become "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (19:6), worthy of possessing the land promised them in Abraham. And upon hearing the laws of God spoken by Moses, the people of Israel proclaimed, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient" (Ex 24:3-8).

In response to Israel's apparent commitment to the covenant and the law, and in fulfillment of his promise that the descendants of Abraham were to be his chosen people, God commanded Moses to have a tabernacle (a portable, tent-enclosed sanctuary) constructed. The biblical account of the building of the tabernacle of the Lord is contained in Exodus 25-40. The tabernacle was to house the Ark of the Covenant, a wooden chest containing stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were engraved.

The religious services of Israel were conducted in the tabernacle by priests selected from the tribe of Levi. The first members of the Israelite priesthood were Aaron, the brother of Moses, and Aaron's sons (see 28:1-4). Most importantly, God himself was present in the tabernacle in a "cloud of glory," which filled the holy place and remained over the Ark of the Covenant (see 40:34-38). During the wilderness wanderings of Israel, the forty-year preparation period prior to their occupation of the land of Canaan, the Lord dwelt with his people and guided them in their quest for a homeland. 'Tor throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel" (40:38).

It was pointed out already that the Lord's covenants with men are always accompanied by a sign or seal confirming that a covenant relationship has been established. This is also true of God's covenant with Israel during the days of Moses. Indeed, this covenant seems to be sealed by three signs. First, the Lord commands Israel to observe the Sabbath day as "a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you" (see Ex 31:12-18). Second, there is the law of God, given to Moses and Israel both as a sign and as an extension of the covenant. And third, the covenant is completed with the building of the tabernacle, a sign in the most literal sense of God's presence with his people.

Leviticus, the book of the Levites or the Hebrew priesthood, describes the religious organization of Israel under the leadership of Moses and his brother, the high priest Aaron. The central theme of this book is God's absolute holiness, the sinfulness of man and the way of atonement. The first sixteen chapters of Leviticus contain the ritual law of ancient Israel, which is presented as "the way of approach to God," a means by which sinful man can be reconciled with his Lord. Through rituals of purification, worship, sacrifice and service — conducted under the guidance of the Levitical priesthood — the spiritual and moral failures of Israel were repented of by the people and forgiven by God. In Leviticus 16, the institution of the "Day of Atonement" (or Yom Kippur), a major observance of historic Judaism, is described: "And it shall be a statute for you for ever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves, and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you; for on this day shall atonement be made for you [by the priest], to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord" (16:29-30). And, indeed, atonement, or at-one-ment, between a holy God and sinful man is the whole purpose of the ritual law of Leviticus 1-16.

Leviticus 17-27 contains an extended analysis of the relationship between the ritual law of the tabernacle and general moral conduct. Such matters as marriage, chastity, respect for parents, the treatment of the poor, relationships between neighbors, the proper performance of national religious observances such as the Sabbath and Passover and tithing are discussed in detail. This section of Leviticus is sometimes called the "Holiness Code" because of its stress upon the need for personal piety and moral purity.

The book of Numbers (so called because of the numberings of the Israelites in chapters 1 and 26) is concerned with the social and political organization of Israel under Moses; and it also describes the preparations that were made for the occupation of the land of Canaan. "Most of the events in Numbers occur in the second and fortieth years of the forty-year period between the exodus and the entering of Canaan. Aside from two events, the thirty-eight weary years in the wilderness are passed over in silence."1 Because of their sins against God, their lack of faith and failure to obey God's law, the people of Israel were not permitted to enter the Holy Land immediately after the renewal of the covenant at Mount Sinai. Instead, they had to go through a forty-year period of testing, a period of wandering in the wilderness to the south of Canaan. Numbers emphasizes the importance of religious devotion, of personal holiness and of a well-ordered community in its account of God's preparation of Israel for the entry into the promised land.

From a Christian point of view, Israel's forty-year sojourn in the desert and eventual conquest of the Holy Land constitute a typological image of the satanic temptation of Christ, w